


How It Should Have Ended

by NobodyWasHere



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, Merlin Memory Month, Merthur - Freeform, Once and Future King, POV Merlin (Merlin), Post-Episode: s05e13 The Diamond of the Day, Return of the King
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 13:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19335766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NobodyWasHere/pseuds/NobodyWasHere
Summary: An old man walks alone, unnoticed. Little do his passers-by know that he carries the burden of a thousand lives on his shoulders.





	How It Should Have Ended

One thousand five hundred years. One thousand five hundred years to the very day. He had never felt so old.

 

The old man trudged along the road, as he always did, every day. His long, grizzled grey hair floated in the gentle breeze. A lorry roared passed him. So much had changed - the roads, the vehicles. He had changed too. It had been so long ago since his skin had been smooth, and his hair had been raven black. His eyes were still the same though - as blue as the lake that occupied his thoughts. Of course being an old man had its perks - he went unnoticed, and he looked as old as he felt.

 

The shimmering water of the lake finally came into view, the tor jutting up in the distance. Even that Tor had crumbled over time. Much like everything else the old man had loved.

 

He paused where he stood, sighing. He walked by that lake every day, searching for something, anything, out of the ordinary. And every day, nothing had changed, the waters lapping against the bank. He was so, so tired. But he would wait. He would wait for him until the world came to an end.

 

Suddenly, he magic stirred. He felt it, deep inside him, as it raised it’s head and pulsed in response to whatever it was that had awoken it. The old man’s heart fluttered. His magic hadn’t been that awake for aeons.

 

His head snapped up, and he whirled towards the lake. A ripple began to glide across the water, towards him. The old man hardly dared to breathe. He let his pack slide from his shoulders, on to the ground, as he took yet another step towards the lake. His heart pounded in his chest.

 

The old man’s heart stopped dead in his chest when he saw it. A shining point rising above the water. Slowly, that point rose higher and higher, until a shining long sword had risen out of the lake. The old man didn’t have to work to remember that sword. The sword which he had forged to save his dearest friend.

 

And as a strong, golden hand also rose from the depths, clasping the hilt of the sword, the name of his friend escaped the old man’s lips in a breathless whisper, a name he had not spoken in centuries.

“ _Arthur_.”

 

Merlin’s ancient eyes widened, and then filled with tears.

**Author's Note:**

> OK this is just a one-shot, but I think it should be how this series ended, even if only to give us some closure for God’s sake. 
> 
> Please leave a comment, they mean the world!


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